OZZFEST 10 YEAR ANNIVERSARY, MUDVAYNE AND SLIPKNOT PERFORM, SHARON TAKES ON MAIDEN

Ozzy Osbourne and wife Sharon Osbourne held a press conference to announce that OzzFest 2007 is free, and the prince of darkness told us why. Keywords:FreeFe…

Ozzfest, still in the midst of their 10 year anniversary tour, has had quite a summer. First with announcing Mudvayne as the tours surprise main stage act and then just last week Ozzy announced he will no longer be head ling the festival he started. Ozzfest, originally launched in 1996 as a limited two-city trek, has become a virtual breeding ground for up-and-coming bands. The renowned second stage has been instrumental in catapulting the careers of System of a Down, Linkin Park, Limp Bizkit, Incubus, Slipknot, Disturbed, Godsmack and Chevelle.

We caught up with Mudvane’s lead singer, Chad Gray to talk about what a big opportunity it is for the band to play on the main stage just before legendary metal bands, Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath and how he can see the band growing each show out, yet he’d rather be closer to the fans on the second stage.

“This is a big deal for the band, you know what I mean. This says a lot for the accomplishments of the band. You can see us growing in the spot we’re in, on the main stage. But from a fan perspective of being able to be close and intimate with the fans, I would absolutely enjoy the second stage.”

Chad Gray also talked about being the ‘secret’ band on this years Ozzfest tour that played the main stage just before Maiden and Sabbath. In fact Ozzfest organizers tried to keep from the public exactly which band got the coveted slot and even asked Mudvayne to keep the secret as well.

“You can’t say anything. That’s like somebody going ‘Here’s a brand new 1971 full blown fire engine red Camaro, you know muscle car and you can’t show anybody and you can’t go fast, you know what I mean. Pick you car. So it was weird for us, you get this wonderful gift handed to you but you can’t show anybody. But of course you’re going to tell the people close to you.”

After a raucous chaotic showing from surprise addition Slipknot, Iron Maiden took the stage for their farewell show on this years Ozzfest and all the problems between Maiden’s lead singer, Bruce Dickinson and Sharon Osborne over this summer’s tour exploded in front of close to 45,000 fans. It appears Dickinson was asked to shorten their set time so Ozzy could perform a little longer in front of his hometown fans, but once Maiden hit the stage he was pelted with eggs, milk, lighters, ice and a variety of food. After this disrespect, Bruce felt it time to proclaim “He wasn’t going to play only 55 minutes, but they would play the whole Maiden set.”

He even went on to add “you’ll never see Iron Maiden on a reality TV show” which was a definite knock on The Osborne’s hit TV series. But the sabotage against Maiden didn’t just stop there as three separate times during their set the sound system went out and before and after Maiden’s set piped over the P.A. were pre recorded chants of ‘Ozzy! Ozzy!” To compound matters, just after Maiden finished playing, Sharon came onstage and took the microphone to personally call Dickinson “A prick” and stating “ he has continuously disrespected the Ozzfest tour.” In what was certainly a classless move by Sharon, it also appears that will be the last time Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath perform together